Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!indetech!cirrus!dhesi From: dhesi@cirrus.com (Rahul Dhesi) Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin Subject: Re: copyright status and future development of comp.archives Message-ID: <1991Jun21.180358.7725@cirrus.com> Date: 21 Jun 91 18:03:58 GMT References: <1991Jun21.074613.10883@agate.berkeley.edu> Sender: news@cirrus.com Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc. Lines: 42 In <1991Jun21.074613.10883@agate.berkeley.edu> adam@soda.berkeley.edu (Adam J. Richter) writes: "If you want to produce a copyrighted newsgroup, then please don't use a newsgroup in a hierarchy that is normally [propagated] over NSFNet and BARRNet, which prohibit most forms of commercial usage." I disagree. There is plenty of copyrighted software posted to the net in the comp.* hierarchy, and nobody seems to mind. It is a wrong assumption that imposing a copyright on a Usenet posting is incompatible with NSFnet etc. "...or if you could be prosecuted for whatever laws exist to make it illegal to make unauthorized use of other people's computer equipement (such as the NSFNet backbone)...." The situation is actually quite symmetric. Just as the NSFnet backbone could complain about unauthorized use of its hardware by somebody posting to Usenet, somebody posting to Usenet could complain about the NSFnet's unauthorized transportation, by copying, of a copyrighted article... ...But Usenet wouldn't be Usenet without complaints. Usenet is an anarchy. There are three basic corollaries to this. a. Once you post something to Usenet, you are implicitly granting permission to everybody on the net to transport and store that posting. b. Once your computer system becomes a part of Usenet, you are implicitly granting permission to others to transmit their copyrighted or non-copyrighted literary or non-literary works through your equipment without being obliged to get your permission or pay you any fee. c. Those disagreeing with all this are free to express their opinions on Usenet, and chances are they will, many times over. -- Rahul Dhesi UUCP: oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi